Unheralded return
So I see Square Enix has announced Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII for Valentine’s Day next year. I remember a time when I would’ve got really excited about a new Final Fantasy but now I can barely bring myself to care that I don’t care (does that make sense?) It looks like such a disaster waiting to happen that the only interest I do have feels like rubbernecking at a motorway accident.

But I also see that there’s some sort of ‘future of Final Fantasy’ thing planned for E3 next week, which I assume is Final Fantasy XV. I know this is probably pointless at this stage but could we may possibly have a Final Fantasy game that is in some way Final Fantasy?

I’m not so worried what they do with the combat but I want a big open world with lots of secrets. But much more than that I want a story that makes sense and I want characters that I like and want to see succeed. That doesn’t need next gen graphics or cloud processing, it needs a decent scriptwriter. I’m sure they must be cheaper too so why do I get the feeling Square won’t cough up for one?Ben Crooper

Cormac McCarthy’s The Last Of Us
I’m surprised no-one seems to have made the connection between The Last Of Us and the film The Road, starring Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy) and released in 2009. Viggo and his young son are one of the few survivors in a post-apocalyptic America, as they make their way across country by foot to the coast, stealthily avoiding gangs of humans who can’t be trusted, while some are imprisoning other survivors for food.

The movie’s very bleak albeit excellent, and centres around the father/son relationship as they scavenge and do everything possible to survive in a hostile world. The premise and feel of The Last Of Us is very similar, such that The Road had to be a major influence. So it’ll be interesting to see how far the game follows the film’s conclusion.Jon Edwards

GC: The novel on which the film is based has been a surprisingly strong influence on games for several years now, including I Am Alive and Resistance 3. Funnily enough it’s an issue we brought up in an interview with Naughty Dog’s Jacob Minkoff, which we’re hoping to have transcribed for the site either today or Monday.

Habeas corpus
There has been some debate over the legitimacy of reports of high quantities of pre-orders for Xbox One from retailers such as Asda. Obviously retailers have an invested interest, but that doesn’t necessarily point towards complete fabrication.

Who knows if there’s an element of exaggeration, but after a discussion with a GAME member of staff – whom confirmed they had received more Xbone pre-orders than PlayStation 4 – he did provide a plausible explanation. He pointed to the hardware of Xbone being revealed, whereas all we’ve seen of PlayStation 4 is the controller. I never considered the importance of a visual reference, but considering visual stimulus is an important factor for any purchase, it must have some bearing.

We’ve already judged the form factor of the controllers for each console, and whilst the majority of us may downplay the aesthetics of a console, subconsciously it will have some influence; otherwise why would manufacturers invest so much time and effort into their design. Although Microsoft’s designers arriving at a ‘box’ for the Xbox can’t have kept them up too late!Up4Banter

Colourful title
I don’t know if some people are going to pretend its hip to dismiss Titanfall just because it’s by the Call Of Duty guys but I have to say I like what I hear so far, even if that isn’t much. We obviously know they can do good online multiplayer but it’s such a relief to find that they’re not just making another military shooter – Call Of Duty by another name.

With Destiny as well I’m quietly hoping that the next gen will have got over the whole brown-coloured military game and we’ll begin to get a bit of variety back into our games, shooter or otherwise. If the current monochrome fashion was led by technology limitations then I’m okay with that, just as long as the next gen doesn’t all look like someone’s drained all colour out of the world.

If sci-fi and fantasy worlds become the norm then that would sell me a lot more on a new console than getting to talk to my TV. So yes, I’m looking forwards to Titanfall. Terrible name though.Tim Rogers

Spoiling the surprise
So I’m guessing Titanfall is going to take the place of Halo in Microsoft’s sci-fi shooter plans, eh? I’d rather that than another Call Of Duty I guess but the artwork so far seems worrying generic. If the game’s all about giant robots why don’t they look more distinctive and interesting? Early days yet but EA and Microsoft must be absolutely fuming with Game Informer, I bet the reveal was meant to be the centrepiece of their conferences.

By the way, what is Game Informer and why does it always get so many exclusives? Surely there must be other American games mags?Xane

GC: Game Informer is owned and published by GameStop, so it’s really heavily pushed in their US stores.

Reach for the Sky
So that Sky subscription story was a bit weird wasn’t it? I thought that sounded like a shoe-in and the first real evidence that Microsoft might be able to make the Xbox One a success even without core gamers. But that denial from Sky was pretty brutal, it basically said that not only is it not true but they’d never do anything like that and you should buy their set-top box instead.

Isn’t that basically a variation of what fans have been saying as well? That the Xbox One doesn’t really do anything new in terms of TV and multimedia and that most people have probably got several devices already that can do the same thing?

I don’t like the idea of dog-piling on Microsoft like this but it does seem they’re just lurching from PR disaster to PR disaster. Whoever does their marketing needs a bit of disciplinary action because so far they’re not cutting the mustard.Cranston

The bottom level
The thing I definitely agree with in GC’s E3 preview is that this is a much more important event for Nintendo than it is for Microsoft and Sony. Those two have got six more months of bumbling and avoiding questions before their consoles are released, let alone before they can be considered a success or failure. But the Wii U is a failure right now and I really hope Nintendo realise what level of hole they’re in.

I think they do, but the problem with Nintendo is that a) they love to miss an open goal and b) they always do the opposite to what you think. Now there’s no open goals left for them at the moment so the only problem with the second certainty is that I don’t honestly know what they should do.

Release more games obviously, but which games? I’d say new ones, more core-orientated titles with new characters that proves they’re not just relying on the same old things. Sure they can announce Mario Kart and Mario but what do they do the year after that? They can’t pull the same trick again. You might say Zelda but that game hasn’t sold that well for over a decade.

So I say new IPs and a new direction. I therefore look forward to Nintendo only announcing sequels and reboots. Sigh.Badgerman

Who knows?
Why is it I think that Sony, and particularly Microsoft, aren’t going to say anything about second-hand games at E3? I’ve read several analysts saying the probably won’t and if you think about it this is something that a lot of casual gamers are going to watch that probably had no idea about the controversy, so why tell them?

Then what will we get? Another round of completely contradictory interviews and a promise that everything will be clarified soon. You know what I think? I don’t think Microsoft has a clue what it’s policy is. I also don’t think the Xbox One is finished and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being either delayed or it turns out just as unreliable as the Xbox 360 did at first.

First there were all those rumours about them being six months behind on the games, then the stuff about them having trouble manufacturing, now it’s been revealed that all the ‘live’ demos at the reveal were faked. Couple that with the worst PR I’ve ever seen and Microsoft are acting like a two-man start-up not the biggest company in the world. I think they need to take a deep breath and start again.Franky

Inbox also-rans
Not sure if you know the answer to this (or if it might be an E3 revelation) but of the Xbox One features that have been revealed so far which are reliant on an Xbox Live Gold subscription?Steve S

GC: It’s still unclear. More importantly though for British gamers is that it’s not known which of the Xbox One’s multimedia features we’ll actually be getting at the start, compared to America.

The good reviews and labels of a ‘must play’ mean I’ll be dusting off the old PlayStation 3 at the weekend. Just when I thought I had played all the good PlayStation 3 exclusives!bigbadmadman

This week’s Hot TopicNext week is the E3 expo in Los Angeles, always the biggest video games trade event of the year. But the importance of the 2013 expo has been magnified a 100 times by the fact that both Microsoft and Sony will be showing off their consoles for the first time in playable form.

GameCentral will be there all week but in the meantime we want to know what you hope and expect to see at the show. What games are you most looking forwards to and what announcements do you most want to hear? What new information do you expect to hear about the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and what will you be disappointed by if it’s not announced?

Whether serious or not, can you make any predictions about the biggest surprises at the show? From games becoming single format exclusives to unexpected sequels, what’s the most shocking thing you think could plausibly happen? When making any predications though please try and make a distinction between what you want to be announced and what you think will actually happen.